T-Bay

If you think you aren’t good enough then you really need to join a band. I know this sounds crazy, but nothing has forced/ encouraged me to improve more than knowing I needed to be gig ready. I have now been playing 3 years and 2 months, my first gig was two months after first starting. I was out of my comfort zone big time, but worked hard and it went very well overall. We were booked again, and again and will be playing there in three weeks time so I can’t have been too bad! Be honest and tell any prospective band where you are technically if they ask, I think as long as you are ok then personality is at least as important in most bands.

Work with one set of band mates, work with the friends/ partners of the other.

Actually that makes far more sense to me. It seems strange as a right hander that it’s my left seemingly doing the complex stuff. Sadly short of inventing a time machine there is no way of determining whether it would in fact be easier to learn to play on a left handed bass.

As everyone knows, the ideal number of basses for anyone can be determined by a simple equation- Perfect number = the number you already own +1

I have a very expensive set of Peltor active ear defenders as one of my other hobbies is target shooting and I am a qualified range conducting officer for our club so I need to be able to hear very well while not suffering the ‘crack’ on discharge (cue the carry on jokes). I have worn them at a practice, partly as a mickey take and partly in the hope that the lead guitarist would get the hint and they are brilliant. I imagine it's that sort the doctor is thinking of and is looking for maximum protection as would be their ideal (but forgetting practicality). Would I wear them at a gig? Would I stuff, you would look an utter pillock. I am more than happy with the job my moulded plugs are doing. If anyone is interested you can get a good idea of sound transference through the bone by gently touching a tuning fork behind the ear. It’s quite a weird experience at first.

Always nice to have a physical copy. With the potential of any digitally held media to either be corrupted or rendered obsolete, I want a ‘real’ copy I know I can access (and I like the cover artwork aspect).

I am happy to hold for a couple of weeks if needed but not much longer. Someone is in most of the time if that helps.

Free for collection from Tamworth, 20-30 bass guitar mags, pretty much perfect condition. Last couple of years or so up to last month. I am unable to post, sorry.

You really got me by the Kinks. seven nation army come as you are isn’t much more than one riff with a few fillers

Started my first band at 44, then a second to get more gigs in at 46, so as above nowhere close to too old. We regularly see local bands where no one is below pensionable age, often by quite a long way.

From a mates wedding, one taken during our (very short) sound check and a nice one with of myself just visible between the bride and bridesmaid.

Just remember to spit in the bosses tea every time you pass........😎

Gone up a bit now but the exchange rate was a lot better a couple of years back. https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-XM8500-Vocal-Microphone-with-Boom-Stand-and-Cable/C9P still a bargain though!

Mad isn’t it! Mine came for less than £20 with a stand and delivery, the body is metal, components seem good quality and it even comes in a decent plastic and foam case. Had it two years and it’s been well used and is still perfect with no issues. There is no on/off switch but other than that I can’t see how the Shure is that different. Edit: just looked and the £20 included a cheap XLR cable as well as the stand.

It is indeed!

Behringer Microphone, cost about £20 worth a stand from gear4music, tried in a blind test against a decent Shure SM and a professional musician friend with a truly amazing ear could not tell which was which.

FTFY

We don’t do those but do similar and it’s amazing how some bland songs just hit a nerve. Personally I am happy to play them as long as some better stuff is mixed in and it’s always a good way to end a set.

We have been known to do this on purpose 😂

I don’t imagine for one second that the registrar would give a toss, I think they were just at the point of trying any excuse to justify it. The bride and groom contacted us today to say thank you and pass on compliments from other guests so feeling very pleased with that.

And forgot to mention this classic- the reason we couldn’t set up in the morning was that registrar wouldn’t allow it. Really? They are powerful enough to stop a wedding because someone has put a drum kit at the other end of the room apparently. I nearly burst out laughing at that one.

Played a mates wedding last night, the venue organisation was appalling (see my other tread) but we have a great evening despite that. We all played well and had the dance floor full most of time. We tried some new songs and adjusted our set to remove some of our heavier songs and it went down very well. Bride and groom were very happy which is all that counts.

We had a great night in terms of our playing and the guests, we sounded great according to all the people who came and spoke to us after and probably 90% of the people there were up and on the dance floor at the end with good numbers throughout. All the new songs went down well, Sit Down was crazy popular (one I thought would empty the dance floor). When we finished out second set around 11pm everyone seemed to head home and we were on our own with the bride and groom by 11.30pm which was a bit weird. The organisation however was an utter shambles. We arrived at 6 but weren’t allowed to start setting up until gone 7pm. We had to set up in front of the DJ (Who was brilliant thankfully). We dug our heels in and took an hour to set up, we also decided to sod their PA system and just run how we normally do and just put vocals through their system. The chap running it was friendly but no one seemed to have an idea of how it should work, one of the women there was awful and tried to say she didn’t know there was a band on despite speaking to me the day before! This all made it very stressful indeed but we played well, the bride and groom loved it so a success despite the venues best efforts!

We have built in time for pink torpedo ups, DJ is on 7-9pm and 11pm on so hopefully the problems will eat into his time.